RIVAL MPs today clashed over the worth of a £50,000 spending boost to every secondary school in Worcestershire.

The cash was announced in Chancellor Gordon Brown's spending review yesterday, along with an extra £10,000 per year for the typical primary school.

The grants are paid direct to the schools - rather than being squeezed through the "unfair" local government spending formula.

Under the formula, Worcestershire's cash-strapped schools have repeatedly lost out to counties such as Hertfordshire.

City MP Mike Foster said the announcement was worth around £50 per secondary school pupil.

It takes the total allocated to each secondary school to £165,000 from next year.

The total will rise again in 2004 to £180,000. Primary schools now get £50,000 per year.

"Every headteacher in Worcestershire should welcome this money, as I know they will," said Mr Foster, a Parliamentary aide in the education department.

"What the local Conservatives must explain is why they will not match the investment we are putting in to schools.

"That is what the national leadership is refusing to do."

But Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff said every school in the country was getting the extra money.

As a result, he pointed out, the gap between local schools and those in better-funded parts of the country would remain the same.

He is still pressing for the Government to come up with a new funding formula which bridges this gap.

Mr Luff has rejected four options proposed by Ministers last week - the best of which would see spending rise by 1.1 per cent, or £56 per pupil.

"I can only give the Chancellor's announcement one cheer," he added.

Meanwhile, householders in Worcestershire and Herefordshire were handed a £150m flood defence boost by Mr Brown.

He pledged to increase the rate of flood defence spending across England and Wales by 8.6 per cent.

The cash will pay for new defences in high-risk areas such as Worcester and Bewdley - which suffered devastating flooding two years ago.

The Treasury said the £150m increase was £5m more than the sum being sought by the Association of British Insurers.

Mr Foster hopes the prospect of new defences will lift the threat of insurers refusing to renew cover for high-risk homes when an agreement between the ABI and Government expires in the autumn.